SFW
by Stokley27
Summary: Spencer just wanted to visit her brother at work, she never planned on anything that happened after that. Spencer, Ashley, A/U. Visit SpashleyU dot com, all the Spashley clips without any other distractions!
1. Chapter 1

**May 16, ****2008**** 3:18pm**** Los Angles – Stan's Swifty Mart.**

The black Porsche Boxter pulled into the aging parking lot, avoiding the pot holes as the driver deftly pulled into a spot, the engine purring to a stop as a slender, well dressed, brunette stepped out of the drivers seat. A tall, muscular, raven haired boy followed from the passenger's side.

"Damn, Ash, you weren't kidding. That car rides like a dream!" The guy excitedly said, using his hands as he spoke to emphasis his words.

"Yeah, I know. I still can't decide though if I want to get this one or the BMW we drove yesterday." Ash, the dark hair boy's companion, replied as she waited for him to open the large glass door. They both walked into the cool canned air of Stan's Swifty Mart convenience store in desperate need of rehydration.

"Well than just get both." He replied as if he was suggesting she get two different lipstick colors and not two very expensive cars.

"Yeah, Aiden, because my accountant would love that." The brunette rolled her eyes at her dense friend. Ashley's dark brown eyes glanced behind her at the half empty parking lot. "And where is Kyla? We weren't going _that_ fast."

Aiden laughed, "For Kyla going over 35 is fast. She drives like a little old lady, no, wait, I've seen little old ladies pass her by."

"Okay, not everyone drives like they're in NASA."

"NASA?" Aiden snorted, "You mean NASCAR, you airhead."

"Ugh, whatever, like I care. It's not like I'm some hick living in a trailer out in the middle of Bumble Fuck Nowhere that needs to know these things so I have something to talk about with my other white trash neighbors while we hang out at the Laundromat."

"Um…ok than…Want a Red Bull?" Aiden asked as he pulled open one of the many glass doors lining the side wall of the store.

"Ew, I haven't changed my mind about liking that crap since the last time you asked me, which was yesterday." Ashley opened the glass door next to him and grabbed a Diet Peach Snapple.

Two aisles away a short, slightly stocky guy was trying to locate some two ply toilet paper, growing frustrated that there only seemed to be the scratchy Scott's brand single ply. He mumbled to himself about how anyone could think saving less than a dollar was worth using something so harsh, besides, it wasn't really a savings if you had to use more. He ran his hand through his shaggy brown hair and sighed, convinced that he had seen some Charmin here just yesterday.

From the front of the store, a loud chiming sound went off, indicating that another patron had come through the door.

"Spence!" The blonde guy working behind the counter shouted at the young blonde girl that had just come in. "What brings you by? Don't you have class?"

Spencer smiled as she shook her head at the blonde guy in the polyester striped polo shirt. "No, my last class was canceled; I think the professor was drunk or something… He came into the classroom, told us to write a 5 page paper on our favorite vice and then stumbled out."

"Wow, that's weird." The guy said as he rubbed the dark blonde stubble on his chin. "So, what brings my favorite sister by?"

"I'm your only sister, you ass." She laughed as she leaned over the counter to playfully shove him. "Anyway, I stopped by because Mom was complaining about those papers that have been sitting on her counter for a week now. I told her I'd drop them off to you because I was sick of hearing 'Glen is so irresponsible, I've been telling him for a week to come pick these papers up.' Oh and she said you need to fill them out and get them sent in as soon as possible to make sure you get your money before the next semester starts."

"It's only May! I still have four months." Glen shook his head incredulously.

"Well, you of all people should know how slow the Army is."

"Ok, but they've been paying for soldiers to go to school for a long time, I'm sure it won't take that long to get my GI Bill money. This is just typical Mom, trying to control my life."

Spencer just shrugged, knowing better than to get in the middle of yet another one of her Mother and Glen's issues. Every since he had been discharged for reinjuring his knee their Mom had been riding Glen to figure out what he was going to do with the rest of his life. So far the only things the guy seemed to show any interest in was partying, girls and doing as little as possible to get by.

"Excuse me, do you have any diapers?" An older black woman asked. She smiled at both Spencer and Glen, while clutching one of the largest purses Spencer had ever seen.

"Yeah, they're over there at the end of the fourth aisle, just past that display of chips." Glen replied with a bored tone, pointing out the area to the woman.

"Thank you." She smiled again. Spencer found herself smiling back at the woman's warm brown eyes. The woman gave a friendly nod to the siblings as she headed towards the indicated aisle.

"I get off at six, if you want, we could go grab a bite to eat before you start your paper." Glen offered. Before Spencer could answer her brother a loud buzzing noise could be heard from the back of the store. The older guy rolled his eyes. "Wait here a minute, Spence, that's the delivery buzzer."

"Okay." Spencer called out as Glen quickly made his way to the back of the store where the office and storeroom were. She glanced at the headlines of the magazines that lined the front of the counter. She shook her head as four of them had pictures of Britney Spears on the cover. Seriously, she was so tired of all the coverage, was it really considered front page news that she was now able to see her children unsupervised?

"…she had the nerve to tell me that not everyone knew who I was and slammed my drink down on the bar. I mean, can you believe that, Aiden? I own 40 of that club and some waitress is going to act like that to me? I basically sign her paycheck! Of course, I had Mark fire her. If she's going to be that rude to me, imagine how rude she would be to the customers?" Ashley ranted on, while beside her, Aiden stood there, nodding his head at the right moments, his eyes glazed over. Years of knowing the girl had given him the ability to zone her out when she got into one of her little bitching moods, which was often.

"You can go ahead of me, I'm just waiting on my brother." Spencer stepped to the side of the counter, allowing Ashley and Aiden to set their stuff down on the worn out Formica.

"Thanks." Aiden smiled as he suddenly snapped out of where ever it was his mind wondered off to when Ashley was bitching or things were too hard for him to understand, which was often. He openly stared at the blonde girl next to them, his green eyes floating over her body as his smile got wider.

Spencer shifted uncomfortably at being looked at like a piece of meat. Her attention quickly turned to the short brunette standing next to the offending guy, who slapped him on the arm none to gently.

"God, Aiden, rude much?" She asked while quirking an eyebrow at the jock. "Sorry about my friend, he's taken a few too many shots to the head in the ring."

Spencer felt a slight blush creep up her neck as Ashley's shining brown eyes met her blue ones.

"Hey!" Aiden protested a moment later as what Ashley had said finally registered.

"See what I mean?" Ashley teased the taller guy while smiling at the shy blonde.

"Hey, man, I don't know this company you're from but you can't bring those boxes out here. You must have the wrong store." Glen called out as he followed behind a guy pushing a dolly with four large boxes on it from the back room. The guy ignored the confused convenience store clerk as he continued to push the dolly towards the wall with the freezers. Glen kept looking down at the papers in his hands, clearly not knowing what was going on. He flipped through a couple pages then looked back over at the guy with the dolly. His hat was pulled down so it that his face wasn't visible. The three at the registered turned around to see what all the commotion was.

"Look, just take these boxes back out to your truck because they don't belong here, we already got all our beverage orders for the week." Glen ran his hands through his curly blonde hair in frustration as the delivery guy continued to ignore him. He'd been working at Stan's for close to four months and nothing like this had ever happened before.

While he was wondering if the guy even spoke English, the front door chimed. Another delivery guy walked in with another dolly filled with four large boxes, dressed identical to the delivery guy his was already dealing with. He groaned, what was going on?

"Hey, buddy, I already told your friend here, you've got the wrong place." He yelled from the middle of the store at the second delivery guy. The second guy just ignored him as he stopped his dolly in the front of the doors. "You can't bring those boxes in here; just take them back to your truck."

"Carlin, what's going on out here?" A Hispanic girl demanded as she walked out from the back office. Her face set in a scowl as she stared at the curly haired guy.

"Don't worry about it, Madison, I've got it under control." Glen called out to the girl, who looked to be around the same age as him.

Her hazel eyes surveyed the scene in front of her, a line of customers at the register, two delivery people with uniforms she'd never seen before out on the store floor with dolly's loaded with boxes and a very flustered looking employee. "Are you sure, because it certainly doesn't look like you've got it all under control? Who are these guys? We shouldn't be getting any more deliveries today." She flipped her long brown her back off her shoulders, annoyed that nothing ever seemed to get done right unless she did it herself.

"I know, I don't think they speak English or something because they won't answer me." Glen took a deep breath, it really wasn't turning out to be his day, the last thing he needed was Madison thinking he couldn't handle the store on his own.

"Hey¿habla español?" Madison called out as she started walking towards the guy by the coolers. "Lugar incorrecto. No necesitamos sus mercancías."

The little hairs on the back of Spencer's neck started to stand up, she didn't know why but something about the entire situation was making her uneasy. Ashley seemed to feel the same way as she took a couple side steps closer to the blonde, pulling Aiden close to her at the same time.

Glen stood in the middle of the store, trying to get any response out of the two guys with the dolly's, while Madison was quickly approaching the one that had come in first, stopped in front of the row of coolers. The air was starting to fill with an unknown tension as everyone watched the events unfolding.

"Hey, you need to get your shit and leave before I call the cops. You have the wrong store." Madison spat out, frustrated with the whole situation, as she stopped a couple feet in front of the delivery guy.

The front door chimes went off causing a momentary distraction as everyone turned to see who had come in. That was all that was needed. The guy moved quickly. He pulled Madison towards his body. Turning the Latina around, he wrapped his arm firmly around her neck. There was a quick flash of silver as he brought a gun up to her temple.

As that was happening, three more men walked through the front door, dressed like the first ones, each pushing a dolly loaded with more boxes.

"What the hell…" Glen questioned as he turned around to look back at Madison. His face went white as he noticed the gun held to her head. "Madison…"

Spencer felt Ashley pressed up against her as Aiden stepped in front of the two girls. Her heart felt like it was going to thump out of her chest as she saw Madison being held at gun point. Something told her that this wasn't going to be just a simple robbery. There were too many of them and they seemed to have brought a lot of boxes with them.

The last guy came into the store, turned around and locked the door behind him. They all had on dark blue delivery jackets with their baseball caps pulled down low so that none of their faces could be seen. From her position though, Spencer had a side view of the last guy. He had what looked like a white nylon screen over his face, so that even if he didn't have the hat on, he wouldn't have been identifiable anyways.

"If you cooperate, you will leave here alive." A robotic voice broke the stunned silence. It was coming from one of the guys near the front of the store. "If not, you will die."

Ashley felt her knees get weak as she leaned even more against the counter pressing into her back to keep standing upright. The guy who was talking was obviously using some type of voice changing device to conceal his voice, but damn if it wasn't the creepiest thing she had ever heard.

Every time Ashley had ever seen a robbery on television there was a lot of yelling and movement, but this was completely the opposite of anything she had ever seen. The five men seemed calm and in no rush. There was no sense of urgency; everyone seemed to be frozen in their respective spots.

Glen was frantically looking around without trying to make it obvious. His three years in the Army hadn't prepared him for what to do when five men came into the store he was working at and held his manager at gun point. Normally, in his training he had had at least a gun as well. He looked over at Madison who seemed to be holding up well considering the gun pushed into her temple and the strong arm around her neck. He tried to reassure her with his eyes but he wasn't sure what to do. So far they hadn't made any demands, or even acted like they were interested in the money in the register.

Some unspoken communication went through the five men as the four who were in the front of the store took off their hats and jackets then opened the top box on their dollies. Glen felt the blood in his veins freeze as he immediately recognized the very large, very scary guns each man was holding, AK-47's.


	2. Chapter 2

**May 16, 2008 3:42pm Los Angeles – Stan's Swifty Mart.**

Ashley always thought she would die in a blaze of glory. Maybe after a weeklong binge, surrounded by drugs that she hadn't yet ingested, hot girls she had spent the week having wild sex with then ignored and fake friends all too willing to take her leftovers in both categories. Being shot in some dirty convenience store in the middle of Los Angeles by what looked like a bunch of reject Mimes was not in the plan, not even a little bit. She refused to die in some shit hole, just another statistic in an already violent society, reduced to just a footnote in some study on urban decay instead of her rightful full 4 page spread in Rolling Stone.

These thoughts barely had time to fly through her mind as she saw the guns being drawn. Next to her, a small gasp escaped the blonde who was now pressed firmly into her side.

In the middle of the store, Glen continued trying to assess the situation, 5 men, one with a gun pressed to Madison's head and four more armed with heavy duty military grade automatics. This was not a good thing at all. 

Two of the men moved forward, towards the register counter, where Aiden stood still in front of the two terrified girls behind him. One of the men motioned with his gun at the trio in the universal gesture to move. He aimed the long barrel at them then waved it towards the row of coolers on the side wall of the store. 

Aiden felt his body shaking but ignored it, keeping himself between the girls and the gun. He protectively held his arms out, encircling the small bodies in front of him, keeping them shielded as much as possible while they walked over and lined up against the cold glass of the beverage cooler. 

The other occupants where corralled as well, the large older black woman who had only came in for some Pampers and a scrubby looking guy, who looked to be in his mid to late 20's until only Glen was left standing in the middle of the store, his eyes never leaving Madison while watching over his sister in his peripheral vision. 

Glen still refused to move until he felt a gun barrel pushing painfully into his back. Reluctantly, he allowed himself to be forced to stand next to the others, all the while keeping his eyes trained on Madison. 

The white masked man holding the gun to the Latina, suddenly let her go, pushing her towards the others that were now lined up a couple cooler doors down. He calmly stepped forward as if nothing was out of the ordinary and he had just stopped to pick up a gallon of milk. 

While the two men had been getting everyone in the store lined up, the other two at the front of the store had started locking the store down. They careless pulled down the various neon beer signs and other lights crowding the window space then quickly pulled some type of black material out of their boxes and started covering the front windows with it, blocking out any view into or out of the store. They then chained the door handles together and then covered the doors with the same material. 

The two men moved with quick, precise motions, leading Glen to surmise they'd had some type of military training, as if the guns hadn't been the first indication. 

During the flurry of activity at the front of the store, the man who had been holding Madison began pulling other items out of some of the boxes. Items that made no sense to blonde guy at all. 

There were video cameras and enough video equipment to run a small TV station. He'd seen all that before as well while in the military. It had been used by entrenched reporters during the Iraq war so that they could broadcast straight from the action. He was at a complete loss as to why they would have the need for any of that here though.

A few feet away Spencer stood completely still, feeling as if she was watching a bad movie, not something that was actually happening to her. She was barely aware that she was clutching onto the arm of a virtual stranger, or that the dark haired guy who had been flirting with her moments ago at the register was still standing in front of her and the girl with his back to them, still shielding them. 

It wasn't until one of the men came over to them and waved the guy away from them that Spencer felt as if she had been awoken from a dream. It was all real, very very scarily real. She watched as he grabbed her protector and forcefully pushed him against the cooler doors, then pushed down on his shoulders until he got the hint and sat down. 

The masked man waved his gun indicating the others to follow suit. No words had been spoken in what felt like forever to Spencer, they only noises heard were the humming of the coolers and the sound of heavy duct tape being ripped as the other men continued covering every inch of glass that looked outside. 

The seven hostages sat there, watching the men. Two stood in front of them, their guns running up and down the row of people. Two more continued to fortify the front of the store, which didn't take much as Stan had spared no expense in making sure his store was secure, from bullet proof windows, to electronically secured locks on the doors. Stan's was a virtual fortress, meant to keep others out but just as effectively kept others in. 

The last man was setting up the video equipment, using one of the dollies to move the broadcasting equipment into the backroom, while leaving the video cameras on top of the boxes. He ran the think cords to each camera and would disappear into the back, where they all assumed he was plugging them in. 

Then, as quickly as the flurry of activity had started, it all stopped. 

The two men who had been securing the windows and doors, guns still slung over their shoulders within easy reach, came over and picked up a video camera each. 

"When the camera is pointed at you, you will state your name, age and occupation." The creepy electronic voice broke through the eerie silence, causing Spencer to jump at the sudden noise. She felt a reassuring hand on her knee and looked up into hazel eyes that burned with a defiance that still seemed to calm her down. 

A light from the camera turned on, bathing the taller guy, who was the first, in its harsh light.

"Um, A-Aiden Dennison, 22, I-I go to UCLA." He got out, barely stumbling over his words, though the look on his face betrayed his false façade of bravery. 

The camera then turned to the brunette to his left. She smirked at the camera, while glaring at the man holding it.

"Ashley Davies, 21, the next big thing." 

Spencer could feel the heat of the light on the top of her head but couldn't make herself look up. A few beats passed and she still couldn't force herself to look up and face the fact that this was truly happening. She wanted to hold onto the sliver of hope that this was all just some nightmare. Any minute her obnoxious roommate would come bursting into their dorm room after a night of partying and wake her up. 

"Hey, man, back off! That's my sister!" Glen's voice roared with anger, finally forcing the blonde girl to look up. She almost wished she hadn't. 

Her brother was standing up and being held against the cooler door with a gun pressed into his chest while another man was only a few steps away from her, his gun pointed directly at her head. Ashley was being held down by Aiden as she made an attempt to get up and move in front of Spencer.

"There's no need for this. Look directly into the camera, state your name, age and occupation, if you have one. This is your only warning." The robotic voice broke in, ceasing all movement from the hostages. 

Spencer took a deep breath and felt Ashley take her hand, giving it a light squeeze. She looked up into the camera, her eyes filled with terror and her lower lip trembling

"Sp-Sp-Spencer Car-C-Carlin…" She fearfully stuttered out, her entire body shaking with the realization that a man only a few feet away had a gun pointed at her head. "…21…U-UCLA stu-student."

She let out the breath she had been holding as she felt the burning light move from her to the woman on her left. Tears welled up in her eyes and slowly over spilled, sliding down her flushed cheeks. A comforting arm found itself around her shoulders and pulled her close as she silently cried into Ashley's shoulder.

"Rhonda Peterson, 52, Registered Nurse." Came clearly from the larger woman.

Next came the scruffy looking guy, who was still clutching the roll of Charmin he had found hidden behind the rolls of the inferior single ply Scots toilet paper. 

"Darius Trokovic, 31, network engineer." He said with a Russian accent.

The light then move onto Madison, who despite having had a gun against her head minutes beforehand, seemed completely unfazed by the events happening. She glared into the camera. 

"Madison Duarte, 24, Manager of this fine establishment you seemed to have taken over."

Lastly, the camera zeroed in on Glen, was who was sitting back down. 

"Glen Carlin, 24, Assistant Manager…"

"In training." 

Glen shot an annoyed look at the feisty brunette next to him, "…_in training_, here at Stan's."

"Well done." The robotic voice said as the camera ran up and down the line of hostages. "Now it's time to explain to you what is expected of you if you wish to live…"

**May 16, 2008 5:27pm Los Angeles – Carlin Family Home.**

Paula Carlin set the carrots down on the cutting board, and then flipped on the small television that sat on the kitchen counter.

The television provided background noise as she continued with washing the rest of the vegetables and placing them on the cutting board next to the well scrubbed carrots. 

"…Police Commissioner Bradley will be holding a conference in a few minutes to give us more information about this highly unusual situation. Again, it hasn't been confirmed but according to eye witnesses, there is a hostage situation taking place at a convenience store on the eastside. We do not know how many hostages there are or what their captors demands are but the windows and doors to the store have been completely blacked out. Calls to Stan's Swifty Mart from Channel 12 News have gone unanswered and police are on the scene…"

The knife that had been cutting the vegetables with the speed of a professional chef fell on the thick wooden butchers block with a dull thud. 

Paula Carlin stood there, staring at the television, on the screen was an aerial view of the store her son worked at. She could make out what she prayed wasn't her daughter's light blue, Volkswagen Beetle in the parking lot between a beat up Honda and a Porsche. A sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach told her it was. 

The house phone started ringing, a sense of dread over took her as she knew that whoever was calling her was not calling with good news. She hesitantly reached out for the phone, her eyes still not moving from the images on the screen as Commissioner Bradley came on screen.

"Hello?" She asked briskly, steeling herself for the inevitable news. 

"At approximately 3:45 this afternoon we were called about a possible robbery taking place at Stan's Swifty Mart. The caller stated that men with white masks and dressed in what looked like white jumpsuits where covering all the windows of the store in blackout film." Commissioner Bradley said into the dozens of microphones attached to the podium he was standing at, not wasting anytime in getting to the details of the situation. 

"Oh, please, God, no…" Paula Carlin cried in reaction to the news she was hearing from whoever was speaking on the other end of the phone.

"Police were immediately called to the scene where the caller's information was confirmed. The windows and doors had all been completely covered in blackout film. It was impossible to assess what was going on in the store due to this. 

Calls to the store have gone unanswered and we had no indication of what was going on inside the store until 20 minutes ago when we received a message via a video sent to us through email." He continued, ignoring that flashing bulb going off around him. "A person claiming to represent the group holding the hostages in the store, identified himself only as Adam was the contact person. He was dressed completely in white, including a white nylon mask, which matches the eyewitness accounts we have already received. He demanded that we air the footage they will be showing from within the store on at least one network, continuously."

"I have to call my husband and we'll be right there." Paula replied to the person on the other end of the phone, her voice filled with maternal panic. Paula hung up the phone and rushed out of the house, dinner forgotten and the television still on. 

"If we do not follow these instructions, they say they will kill all the hostages being held in the store. They also sent us a video showing all the hostages stating their names, ages and other identifying information. We are withholding that information until all their families can be notified. There are seven people that we know of being held currently. CNBC has offered the use of their station for the broadcast until we can come to a resolution in this situation. The feed that we will be showing will be on a two hour delay according to the leader, Adam. We have no reason to believe at this time that this is not real and are treating it as such. The feed will start at approximately 6pm once we have set up the proper frequencies for the airing. That is all that we have at this time. My office will keep you updated as we receive and process more information. That is all." The Commissioner quickly left the podium and went back to the makeshift command post that had been set up on the far side of the parking lot. 

He had been the Police Commissioner for Los Angeles for over 15 years and never in his life had he ever heard of anything like this. He had been adamant about not giving into the demands of who he considered terrorist but once the video of who the hostages actually were was released, the FBI had stepped in and demanded they follow through with whatever the captors wanted. 

He didn't agree but he couldn't very well argue when the order had come directly from the office of the President himself. 


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N thanks for the reviews, seriously, I'm flattered. Also, check out SpashleyU dot com, it's all the Spashley clips without any of the other stuff in the way..._

**May 16, 2008 6:08pm Los Angeles – Stan's Swifty Mart.**

They'd been sitting there on the dirty, cracked tile floor of Stan's for over an hour, none of them sure how to go about following the directions they had been given. Few words had been spoken in that time besides the occasional, checking up with each other and murmured words of reassurance that they wouldn't be there that long. Sooner, rather than later, the authorities would rescue them and it would all be over. These are the words that the seven told themselves to comfort themselves; to make it through this nightmare that none of them in a million years would have ever predicted they would be in.

All their cellphones, purses, and wallets had been taken from them. Ashley was about to crack from the silence and lack of activity. She wasn't one to just sit around, often accused of having ADHD, she didn't deny it, in fact she often agreed. On some level she found it funny that her mother had sent her to dozens of shrinks over the years but never once allowed any of them to put her on any type of medication. As if going to a shrink was the fashionable thing to do for LA's elite but being on medication wasn't. Never mind the fact that her own mother had a mini pharmacy in her bathroom.

"Are you ok?" a quiet voice asked, interrupting Ashley's inner musings.

"Peachy." Ashley sarcastically replied, rolling her eyes. She turned to look into the still scared blue eyes of the blonde next to her, puffy and bloodshot from the tears that had finally subsided a while ago. "Well, except for the fact that I'm being held captive in a dirty minimart by gun toting, freaks with a Bunim and Murray complex. Otherwise, yeah, peachy."

"Oh, ah…okay." Spencer shrugged, not sure what to say to the brunette's outburst. Placing a hand gently on the hazel eyed girl's bouncing knee, Spencer gave her a small smile. "I couldn't tell from all the fidgeting."

Ashley stopped the movement as soon as she felt the pressure of Spencer's hand on the denim but it started again as soon as the student withdrew her touch.

"My granddaughter fidgets all the time. Her mother, my daughter, is forever telling her, 'Keisha, quit that fidgeting.' But I say leave the child alone, she isn't hurting anyone. It's just her way of letting some of that endless energy she has out." Rhonda smiled, a faraway look in her eyes while talking about her family.

"How many grandchildren do you have?" Spencer asked the older woman, trying to ignore the cameras catching their every move and word while blocking out the other two men who had their guns constantly trained on them.

"My daughter just had another baby a few months ago, so now I have four. Three beautiful little granddaughter's and the oldest one is a boy, my Marcus. He's such a bright boy. He's only 8 but he won his school's spelling bee, beating out even the older kids." The pride clearly shown in her dark eyes and bright smile while talking about her grandson.

"Aw, he sounds like my older brother Clay. He's in his last year as Princeton, studying to get his doctorate."

"Your parents must be so proud!" Rhonda exclaimed. "One child at Princeton and another at UCLA."

"Yeah and one who works at Stan's Swift Mart." Ashley cut in loudly, smirking at Glen, who was talking quietly to Madison. "What happened there?"

"Shut up, you don't even know me or anything about me." Glen angrily replied, Ashley's loud comment catching his attention.

"At least he has a job," Madison added, "Ms. Next Big Thing. More like next big _nothing_, LA is full of those."

Next to Ashley, Aiden muffled a laugh, "You obvious have no clue who…umph" Aiden shot a hurt look at Ashley, rubbing the ribs she had just roughly elbowed.

"I'm going to be one day." She finished, "But that's ok, sometimes it's hard to recognize greatness when you've settled for…" Ashley ran her eyes around the rundown convenience store, finally landing on the blonde guy, "mediocrity."

"Hey, that _is_ my brother you're talking about." Spencer chided, scowling at the girl next to her.

"Come on now, bickering with each other isn't going to make this any better." Rhonda interrupted before even more words could be exchanged between the younger hostages. "You all are just upset and lashing out because you're scared. It's ok to be scared but we don't need to be turning on each other from the get go. Alright?" She fixed each of them with a hard stare, the kind that only mother could give, perfected over the years with the addition of grandchildren.

"Yes" "Yeah" was mumbled from the Carlin kids and Aiden. Madison just glared at the brunette who had started it all.

"Whatever. It doesn't matter." Ashley moodily replied standing up. Her sudden movement caused the others to jump slightly, apprehension fell over the group as they waited to see what the gunmen would do. Ashley looked slowly looked around, realization hitting her as to what she had just done.

When none of the white masked freaks made a move to make her sit back down or shoot her with their big guns, she cautiously turned around to open the cooler door she had been sitting against for the last two hours. Taking a diet peach Snapple out for herself, she reached over and grabbed a red bull for Aiden. Everyone else watched her transfixed, as if she was performing delicate open heart surgery instead of only grabbing a couple drinks out of the cooler.

She glanced down, seeing all eyes on her, "What? I'm thirsty, anyone else want anything while I'm up?"

When she got no reply, she shrugged and twisted the cap on her drink. The loud pop of the cap caused a few people to jump again, which only made her shake her head laughing to cover the fact that the noise had caused her to jump as well. She handed the Red Bull to a grateful Aiden.

"Um, excuse me; you _are_ going to pay for that." Madison raised one eyebrow at the girl who had just helped herself to one of her products.

Ashley turned and faced the store manager, "are you for real? We're being held hostage in a fucking convenience store for God knows how long and you're worried about me paying for a drink?"

"It's my job as the manager of this store to make sure all inventory is accounted for. I can't just let people help themselves to whatever they want." Madison replied, "Besides it's not as if you can't afford it with your fancy designer clothes and the brand new Porsche I saw you drive up in with your boyfriend there."

"Ugh, you know what, whatever. Seeing as they took my purse, put it on my tab." Rolling her eyes the brunette took another long drink of her Snapple.

Aiden glanced nervously over at Madison before opening his drink and taking a long swig. His throat had been so dry it was almost painful. He closed his eyes in relief as the carbonated liquid made its way down his parched throat, making it easier to swallow.

"Fine, I will!" Madison got up with a huff and marched over a couple aisles, too pissed to even notice one of the cameraman and a gun man follow her every move.

She grabbed a spiral notebook and a package of 5 Bic pens from the shelf. Then made her way back towards the coolers and sat back down. Aggressively opening the package of pens, she grabbed one and opened the notebook. On the top she wrote 'Tab Tally' then made a column with Ashley's name and wrote 'Snapple, diet peach - 1.29, Red bull - 2.19' under the name.

"Don't forget to include yourself for that notebook and pens." Ashley sarcastically called to Madison, finding the entire thing absurd.

"I don't have to, I'm using them for administrative purposes." Was the equally sarcastic reply.

"Whatever." Ashley looked down at Spencer who been looking between Ashley and the gunmen, trying to see their reaction to the two hostages standing and moving around. They didn't seem to discourage it, at least they didn't make any moves with the guns to stop Ashley or Madison from moving around. It was hard to tell though considering their faces where covered. "Thirsty, Blondie? It's on me."

Despite herself, Spencer smiled at the feisty girl standing over her. "Well in that case, can I get a Snapple Iced Tea?"

Ashley opened the cooler door again, "Sweetened or unsweetened?"

"Sweetened, please?" Spencer took the offered drink with a grateful smile. "Thanks."

"What about you, grandma? What do you want?"

"I'll just take a water, thank you." Ashley nudged Aiden with her foot. The dark hair guy looked over at the gunmen before scooting over, not wanting to chance getting them all shot. Ashley opened up the door that Aiden had been sitting against and pulled out a bottle of water. She handed it over to the dark woman who smiled warmly at her.

"You get that, Ms. Manager? That was another Snapple and a bottle of water." Ashley sneered at Madison, who was indeed writing everything down.

Madison merely huffed and ignored the taunting brunette.

"Hey, she's only doing her job." Glen tried to reason, not wanting to be stuck for who knew how long with two fighting girls.

Ashley laughed, "We're being held at gunpoint by what looks like retarded albino rejects from the Blue Man Group and she's concerned about a few drinks? Newsflash Mr. Assistant Manager, _in training_, we're all in this together. So if we want to have a few drinks because we're thirsty… So. Fucking. What." Ashley ran an agitated hand through her wavy chestnut locks. "If we want to eat one of your year old hot dogs because we get hungry…So. Fucking. What. Does any of that really matter considering the situation we're in?"

The two men with the guns didn't flinch at Ashley's outburst, they continued to watch the entire group, guns pointed steady at the hostages in front of them. Meanwhile, the two with the cameras continued filming, one zoomed in on Ashley, the other catching the groups reactions.

Rhonda stood up and put a comforting hand on Ashley to stop her tirade, "Hush, now, child, we don't need to be getting upset with each other. Let Madison keep her tally if it makes her feel comfortable. We all just need to calm down. I know this is a hard situation we've found ourselves in but we have to stay levelheaded if we don't want anyone to get hurt." She spoke in smoothing tones to Ashley, calming the girl down.

Spencer looked up in alarm at the mention of anyone getting hurt. She shifting, trying to ease the ach that was starting in her butt and lower back from sitting on the hard floor for hours. She wanted to stand but was afraid that too many of them standing up and moving around would make their captors nervous or worse, causing them to shoot. She glimpsed over and found Aiden staring back. He looked up at his friend and gave a little shrug, as if to say he didn't know what to do with her either.

"Don't worry, Spence, we'll get out of this okay, I promise." Glen quietly said as he scooted over to where Rhonda had been sitting before getting up to calm Ashley down. He wrapped an arm around his sister and pulled her close. "I'll figure something out."

Spencer allowed her brother to hold her, as much as she hated being there, at least having Glen with her made her feel a little better.

**May 16, 2008 6:14pm Los Angeles – Outside Stan's Swifty Mart.**

Paula Carlin stared at the screen, her heart pulling at the sight of her very scared little girl not looking up as the camera moved to show Glen standing up to rush to his sister, only to be pushed back against the glass doors of the coolers by the barrel of a gun. Her heart stopped at the sight of Glen being held in place with it pressed directly over his heart. The camera then swung back to show Spencer, her eyes as wide as saucers, filled with tears. Terror was written all over her face and Paula would have crumbled into a crying mess right there on the pavement, under the tent they now stood in with the other hostages families watching the broadcast, if her husband, Arthur, hadn't been holding her up.

"Oh, God." He moaned, watching as his baby girl stuttered out her name, age and the fact she was a UCLA student into the camera. He looked behind him at Stan's Swifty Mart. It killed his as a father that his children were just on the other side of the concrete and glass but he couldn't get to them.

Next to them, a well dressed African American woman cried as the image of a woman who looked to be an older version of her came onto the screen. "Momma…We have to do something, Momma is in there!" She yelled into her phone.

Another man came up to her, his skin a light mocha color, his eyes held a steely determination. He hugged her to his chest, much like Arthur was now holding his wife after Glen had come onto the screen giving his stats as well.

Arthur was proud, his son looked calm and completely in control of his emotions. Just knowing that Glen was there with Spencer made him feel much better, he knew Glen would never let anything happen to his little sister. He also knew that Glen would never do anything to put either of them in danger. As much as he wished this had never happened, that neither of his children where inside that store, they fact that they weren't alone was a small comfort in a very difficult situation.

"…doing everything they can. All we can do is wait to see what these people want." The man whispered into the woman's ear.

"I don't care, Seth, they should be doing more. Our mother is in there with gun-toting maniacs, anything could happen." She yelled as she pushed him away.

"Look, Cecily, I know you're upset, we all are, but the only thing we can do is wait. As soon as we get a better understanding of what they want, then we'll know what to do." Seth tried to reason with the upset woman but she just shook her head and turned away, walking while dialing another number on her phone.

Dozens of people were crowded under the tent that had been set up for the families of the hostages to watch the feed on CNBC of what was happening within the store a few hundred feet away from them on the other side of the parking lot. The street had been closed off so the tent sat on the road, back behind the police line that surrounded the building. The store sat by itself, an empty lot on one side of it and a burnt out building on the other that was separated by another parking lot. Commissioner Bradley was grateful that there weren't any residential homes to evacuate; it was one of the only things to be grateful for in this mess.

"Commissioner…" An Asian man in his early 30's ran up catching the Commissioners attention.

"What it is, Detective Lee?" Bradley asked impatiently, he was running late with meeting the liaison for the FBI that had been assigned to the case.

"Sir, we ran all the plates and vins for the cars in the parking lot and behind the store like you asked." Detective Lee took out his notebook and started reading what he had found. "The two delivery trucks were stolen out of Nevada two days ago from a truck rental agency and the plates were all stolen off trucks at the U-Haul in San Jose. The two cars parked in the back, the red Stratus is registered to Glen Carlin and the Camry to Madison Duarte."

Lee continued on as he almost had to jog to keep up with the brisk walking Commissioner, "In the front lot the Porsche was reported stolen but that has been corrected, Ashley Davies and Aiden Dennison were identified as the persons who had taken it out for a test drive this afternoon. The blue Volkswagen is registered to Arthur Carlin and has been identified as the vehicle Spencer Carlin uses. The Honda Accord is registered to Darius Trokovic and the Altima is registered to Rhonda Peterson."

The Commissioner stopped and turned to look at Detective Lee, a displeased look on his face, "Wait, that accounts for all the hostages they claim to have."

"Yes, sir, I know…"

"Then who the hell does the Expedition belong too?"

"We ran that one and it comes back registered to a Harold Michaels, 42, a CPA who works downtown at one of the studios. We sent a patrol car to his home. His wife said he hadn't been home yet and she hadn't been able to get a hold of him since she last talked to him around 3:30pm. He told her he was on his way home and she asked him to stop and pick up some Milk and a Reese's for her. They live in that Meadow Brooke Subdivision about three miles down the road from here."

"Are you trying to tell me there is another person in that store that we haven't been made aware of?" The vein on Bradley's forehead started pulsing as he took in this new information and why they hadn't heard anything about Harold Michaels yet.

"It looks that way, sir." Detective Lee swallowed, cursing his luck at drawing the short straw and being the one who had to deliver the news to the already frustrated Commissioner.

"Then where the hell is Harold Michaels?"


	4. Chapter 4

A/N Hey all did you know that SpashleyU "dot" Com is having a contest? you can win some awesome South of Nowhere related stuff. The contest will kick off on April 18th, but there's some details up on the site already. Also, we're going to be raising money for The Trevor Project, head on over to SpashleyU to find out more info. Thanks.

**May 16, 2008 6:42pm Los Angeles – Stan's Swifty Mart.**

Harold Michaels was not a brave man by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, the only truly brave thing he had ever done in his life had been standing up to Bobby Swanson, the class bully in the 6th grade who had been picking on Suzy Marshal, the little girl he'd been crushing on. He pushed the bigger boy away from Suzy and then kicked him in the shin. He felt brave and proud for about 5 minutes until Bobby Swanson beat him up in front of Suzy and everyone else. Harold learned a very valuable lesson that day on the playground. He learned that it wasn't worth it to be brave.

It was a lesson Harold had carried with him throughout his whole life. Harold had never taken a chance in his life. He had gotten through high school being the object of everyone's ridicule and when that was over, he was just grateful to get out and went as far away as he could for college. While in college he met his wife, Peggy, a large, loud, pushy, overbearing woman who had controlled Harold's life since the moment she told him to pick her up for their first date. Harold didn't say no, even though he wasn't attracted to her and before he knew it, they were married with three ungrateful kids who treated him like a doormat with a wallet.

Despite the fact that his wife was constantly harping on him that he didn't earn enough, or love her enough, or provide for them enough, he still wished he was at home listening to her bitch at him then hiding in a dirty little bathroom from masked maniacs with guns in the convenience store a couple miles from his large, comfortable, relatively safe home.

It had all began when his wife had called him at work, reminding him that their daughter had a dance recital that night, so had had better be home early. He sighed and obediently left soon after. On the way home she called him again and told him he needed to pick up some milk and a candy bar for her. He was only a block away from his house at the time and with another sigh, he turned around and stopped at Stan's.

He had walked in when the chili he'd ate for lunch caught up with him. His wife never let him eat spicy foods so when he saw the Studio cafeteria was having Chili, he thought he was a grown man and if he wanted to eat chili, then dammit, he would eat chili.

Walking into to Stan's, with his stomach gurgling its displeasure, Harold sighed as he walked at a rapid pace to the bathroom. There was no way he could let Peggy know he'd had something she wouldn't approve of, he's never hear the end of it.

So holding his nose and making an effort not to touch anything, Harold slammed the door of the stall in the restroom. For the next 20 minutes, he prayed that if whoever was up there would just make the cramping in his stomach stop, he'd never go against what his wife told him again.

When the spasms had stopped he slowly left the stall, only to hear shouting from the other side of the door. Not wanting to get in the middle of what sounded like a fight of some kind, Harold took his time washing his hands, then when it had gone completely silent, he cracked the door to see if whatever was going on was finally over.

Harold quickly but silently closed the door again, backed up into the bathroom, and curled up into a little ball next to the dirty toilet. He didn't need to see anymore than he had already saw, a man in a white mask taking out a very nasty looking gun.

There Harold had sat not moving or making a sound for the last three hours, praying no one would need to use the bathroom before this was all over.

* * *

"These rag mags are all the same…Britney, Britney, Lohan, Britney, Olsen Twin, Jessica Simpson… Ok, really, just because she played Daisy Duke does _not_ mean she's country and can make a country album." Ashley rolled her eyes and threw the magazine on top of the pile next to her. She grabbed the next one, Time Out LA, and leafed through it, trying to find something interesting to read. Noticing a large picture that accompanied an article about the newest club to open that month, her eyes went wide.

"Hey, Ash, that's…" Aiden exclaimed leaning over to look at the magazine in the brunette's hands.

"The new club you've been wanting to go to, I know." She quickly cut him off, giving him a hard look that dared him to say anything else.

Aiden glanced down at the picture of him and Ashley dancing at Cobalt and looked up at his friend, giving her a quizzical look. "Ah, yeah, we really should check it out. I heard it was the place to find hotties in LA."

Ashley glanced around, no one had really moved from the floor against the coolers. Spencer was now sitting next to her brother, her eyes closed, taking slow deep breaths. Ashley had seen her sister, Kyla, do the same thing numerous times when trying to fight off a panic attack. One of the men had a camera pointed right at her, capturing the blonde at her most vulnerable. Ashley tapped her foot against the bottom shelf across from her in boredom and frustration. As creepy as the men were, she doubted they were going to shoot them otherwise they would have already. As long as they followed the rules they had been given, they would be fine.

She couldn't be sure how long they had been sitting there, in relative quiet, everyone whispering among themselves, not wanting to draw the cameras, or even worse, the men with the guns attention. Aiden started humming, off key so bad she couldn't tell what song it was suppose to be. Spencer seemed to be losing her battle as her breathing picked up, Ashley noted.

'_I'm sure the cameras aren't helping at all._', she thought bitterly, deciding she needed to do something draw attention away from Spencer. She didn't know why she felt the need to protect the girl but she seemed so gentle and innocent, Ashley hadn't met someone like her in LA in a very long time.

"Oh my God, Aiden!" She yelled startling the dark haired guy next to her. "Would you stop with the humming! It sounds like two chainsaws fucking."

Aiden's mouth fell open, shocked at his friend's outburst and more than a little offended at her words. Ashley silently told herself to apologize to the boxer later but for now she could only smirk as the camera that had been aimed at Spencer swung around to point at her. Unfortunately, one of the gunmen had also positioned his gun directly at her at the same time.

"Whoa, no need to point that thing at me, Casper." Ashley held her hands halfway up in the air, "I'm not the one who's humming could make a deaf man cringe. If you're gonna shoot anyone, it should be him, not me."

"Ashley…" Aiden hissed next to the brunette, slowly scooting away from her.

""Oh, relax, Aiden, no one is going to be shot," Ashley waved her hand dismissively, "if they were going to kill us they would have already."

"Yeah, so let's just taunt them into shooting your friend." Madison glared at Ashley, "great friend you have there, Aiden."

"You shouldn't joke around like that. We don't know these guys will do." Glen reprimanded Ashley. Next to him, Spencer seemed to have forgotten about her impending panic attack as she stare between Aiden and Ashley, the look on her face unreadable.

"Whatever, if they were going to shoot us they would have." Ashley huffed, standing up.

"You Americans, you're so impulsive." Darius spoke up from the corner he'd been leaning back in, sitting on a stack of Coke 24 packs. "In Russia we have a saying 'you needn't be afraid of a barking dog, but you should be afraid of a silent dog.'"

"What the hell is _that_ suppose to mean?" Glen snapped, whipping his head around to look at the Russian.

"It means, that they," Darius nodded towards the men with the guns, "are silent dogs, my friend, and we would do well not to piss them off."

"Seeing as you haven't said anything really, does that mean we should be afraid of you as well?" Madison arched her eyebrow, staring at the Russian.

"I'm not holding any of the guns, am I? I would say that we are all in the same predicament, are we not?" Darius replied, a small smile on his face.

"That's not really an answer." Madison stated, an annoyed look on her face. She wasn't sure why but something about the older guy bothered her. Maybe it was the fact that besides stating his name, age and occupation for the camera he had yet to say anything else since the whole ordeal had begun. He had just sat quietly in the corner, watching everything going on.

"Forgive me, I meant that the only people that appear to be a danger here are the men dressed in white, pointing loaded AK47's at us." Darius held his hands in front of him, as if showing he meant no harm.

"Whatever." Madison huffed and turned away. She turned the page on her notebook and wrote something down, making sure to keep it close her to chest so no one could read what she was writing.

"Hey, Spence, how are you doing?" Glen softly asked his sister, who hadn't said a word in a while. He was getting worried about her, she wasn't crying anymore but just sitting there. She had barely blinked when Ashley had yelled at Aiden and then started arguing with Madison. He was grateful that her breathing had calmed down though, for a minute there he had thought he was going to have to grab her a paper bag to breathe into.

"Ok, considering the circumstances." Spencer lightly smiled, doing her best to ease her brother's worried look.

"I wouldn't worry, girl. As long as we play nice, we'll be fine." Madison said in a rare moment of concern.

"Yeah, I mean, the police have to know what's going on by now." Glen's eyes traveled towards the blacked out windows, "Even if we can't see them."

"I have faith that we will all safely get out of here." Rhonda smiled at the group, "Just as I have faith that Our Lord is watching out for us, we all have to have faith that the authorities are doing all they can do as well."

The conviction in which the older woman had conveyed in her words made Spencer feel a little better. For the first time since they had all been held captive, she felt like she and everyone else might make it out of there alive.

"Whatever works for you." Ashley mumbled, picking up another magazine. "But I wouldn't hold out hope for some invisible man in the sky."

"Why do you always do that?" Aiden questioned his friend. He ran his hand through his black hair, pushing the bangs out of his eyes.

Ashley sighed and put down the magazine with an exaggerated huff. "Do what, Aiden?"

"Dismiss other people's belief's. Just because you don't believe something doesn't mean it's not real."

"Says the guy who swears he's seen a UFO." Ashley laughed. Down the row, a snicker could be heard coming from Glen and Madison as well.

"I did!" Aiden raised his voice, tired of being teased about that from the person who was supposed to be his best friend. "It just hovered there, with all these different lights and it didn't make a sound."

"If you say you saw a UFO, I believe you, there are many things in this Universe we aren't made to know about." Rhonda offered, wanting to keep another argument from starting.

"Thanks, I really did." Aiden gave the grandmother a grateful smile, "I was sitting out on the beach one night and my Ipod stopped working. I felt this strange vibration around me and I looked up and there it was." A faraway look had come over Aiden as he recounted his story.

"Yeah, like I said, you've taken to many hits to the head." Ashley wasn't intentionally being mean to Aiden but she was bored and picking on him usually was a fun way to pass the time.

"Whatever, Ash, I don't know why I put up with you sometimes." Aiden, more pissed then he was concerned for his safety for the moment, got up and moved further down the row of coolers to sit on the other side of Madison.

"Oh, come on, Aiden, I was only playing." Ashley called out.

Aiden ignored her, making a point to smile at Madison and start up a quiet conversation with the store manager.

"Fine, whatever." Ashley picked up the magazine she had discarded before and started leafing through it, acting as if she could care less about what Aiden did.

"Oh, this floor is too hard for my old bones." Rhonda said as she stood up, keeping a careful eye on the men with the guns. She walked over to another stack of soda cases and sat down.

"That wasn't very nice." A voice softly said next to the brooding brunette. She looked up and into the bluest eyes she had ever seen, she quickly looked back down at the open magazine in her hands.

"Good thing I never claimed to be nice, than." Ashley replied, keeping her eyes down, staring at the glossy pages in front of her. She heard the blonde softly sigh next to her but made no move to say anything else. It wasn't that she was trying to be a bitch but her pride was stung by Aiden's actions.

Spencer wasn't sure what to make of Ashley. How was the sarcastic, argumentative girl the same one who had tried to protect her and comforted her just a few hours ago the same person? It didn't make sense because someone who acted as if they didn't care that they were being held hostage and filmed the entire time didn't try to protect a stranger. There was a lot more to Ashley Davies and Spencer was determined to figure it out, it was a nice way to distract her from obsessing about the men in white.

Spencer and everyone else were startled out of their individual thoughts by a loud buzzing noise. One of the gunmen quickly moved his gun towards the noise, along with one of the camera men but the other two kept their attention on the group in front of them. It took Glen a few beats to register what the noise was until Madison nudged him.

"Coffee…" She loudly whispered.

"Oh, yeah it must be quarter past 7, that's the coffee buzzer." Glen looked around not sure what to do, if he should get up to change the coffee or let the buzzer continue. Madison made the choice for him, much to his dismay.

"Get up and turn it off." She snapped, like it was any other day and Glen was just slacking on his duties, instead of forcing him to walk over to the other side f the store while men with guns followed his every move.

"Ahh, yeah, turn it off." Glen weakly smiled, badly hiding his unease with the demand. "Ok…"

The blonde guy shrugged and stood up. Keeping his eyes on the men, he carefully walked over to the other side of the store, staying out of the way of the men with the guns and cameras. Everyone held their breath with each step he took and his every move. A collective sigh of relief was heard as he made it safely over there and turned off each coffee pot, ending the buzzing noise.

For the briefest of moments, Glen thought about throwing the hot coffee in the face of the man closest to him but he knew that he would be mowed down by the other guy before he could even make another move and he couldn't protect Spencer and Madison if he was shot. With shaking hands he poured the coffee down the small sink next to the hot beverage area. He then washed out each pot, as was his nightly routine. He stacked them on top of the coffee machine and turned towards the hot rack that held the hot dogs and other various food items that sat out for hours on the rollers.

"Hey, are you going to toss those out because I'm starving." Aiden called out, his hunger over riding his brain telling him to not draw any attention to himself.

"If you want any, come and get them." Glen called back, not wanting to be the only one up and walking around the store.

Aiden gulped, not sure what to do but not wanting to appear afraid when Glen had just walked over there like it was nothing. Glancing at the men and seeing that they didn't seem agitated or anything by Glen being in another part of the store, Aiden slowly got up. "Sure, no problem, we can't let bad minimart food go to waste."

Everyone's eyes bounced between Aiden walking over towards Glen, the men dressed in the white jumpsuits to Glen and around again, waiting to see if anything happened. Spencer's heart was beating like she had just ran a marathon and her breathing was getting labored again. Before it got too bad, she felt a warm hand take hers and squeeze, she looked over and saw Ashley watching her, taking exaggerated slow breaths. Spencer matched Ashley's breathing and felt herself starting to calm down. She continued taking slow, deep breaths while turning back to watch Aiden and Glen, who were now both by the hot food area.

Aiden held up a wrinkled jumbo hot dog, staring at it like it was a science experiment. "Dude, how long have these things been out? They look sick."

"Only about 6 hours, the heat makes them shrivel up but they're safe to eat. Usually this homeless guy, Barney comes and takes them every night." Glen quickly snuck a peak at Madison to see if she had heard the last part. Glen told her he threw them away every night and since she rarely worked past 7, he was free to give them to Barney when he came in around 8. The disapproving glare on her face told him she had heard. He groaned internally hoping that the present circumstances would save him a lecture from the Latina.

Aiden sniffed the hot dog, then eyed it again, still undecided if he was _that_ hungry or not.

"Oh, for God's sake, it's not toxic." Glen reached over and grabbed another hot dog off the rollers and took a bite. His nose wrinkled a bit as he chewed the hot dog, it was tougher than it looked and tasted a bit like old leather. "It just needs some ketchup."

He grabbed a bun tossed the hot dog on there, and then smothered it in ketchup. Aiden eyed the hot dog one more time before grabbing a bun as well and loading it up with ketchup, mustard and relish. Saying a silent prayer, he took a huge bite. After some serious chewing her decided it wasn't the worst thing he's ever ate, though it was close.

Next to Spencer, Ashley wrinkled her nose in disgust, "Ew, that is so gross. They've been sitting out for hours."

"When you're hungry you'll eat what you can, child." Rhonda said from her soda case perch. "Aiden, would you be a dear and bring me one of those hot dog with some mustard, please?"

"Sure." Aiden smiled and got another hot dog ready for the woman. "Anyone else want one?"

"No, thanks." Spencer answered. Darius shook his head and Madison started writing down the hot dogs in her tally.

"Don't cry to me if you get sick, Aiden." Ashley warned, shaking her head. She knew this wouldn't end well. As much as Aiden ate, he had a weak stomach, the result of being raised in a very well off family. He couldn't even handle cheap beer.

"Whatever, Ash, I can handle a hot dog or two." As if to prove his point he grabbed another one and shoved it in his mouth, ignoring Glen who attempted to stop him.

"Dude, that was a jalapeno one…" Glen grimaced, knowing those only got worse with time, not even Barney took those.

Aiden's face turned pale as his eyes got wide, he looked around and finding the bathroom door made a dash for it. One of the men with a camera following him, while another with a gun kept it trained in his direction.

Ashley snickered, knowing that no real harm would come to her friend, besides maybe a bruised ego.

Aiden quickly pulled the door open, "What the fu….."

Everyone gasped as a figure bolted out of the bathroom, screaming like a madman, tackling Aiden to the ground. Harold had decided that he would do one more brave thing in his life. He had decided that he wasn't going down without a fight and Harold Michaels had over 35 years of pent up rage and aggression to unleash in his final blaze of glory. His sudden appearance had even startled the mute men in white who hadn't made any moves beyond observing the group since the initial rounding them up.

Thing seemed to slow down as Ashley stood up, yelling, "STOP!" at full volume. There was a loud bang and then everything went dark for Aiden.


End file.
